BANGALORE, India: India launched a rocket Monday carrying seven satellites into orbit, including a Canadian orbiter that will scan for asteroids that could be hurtling toward Earth.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off from the Sriharikota rocket launch centre located on an island off the coast of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The launch, witnessed by Indian President President Pranab Mukherjee at the space mission control centre, "was perfect", Devi Prasad Karnik, an official of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation, told AFP.

The suitcase-sized Canadian satellite, which the Canadian Space Agency calls a "sentinel in the sky", will circle the globe every 100 minutes, scanning space to pinpoint asteroids that may come close to Earth.